Teitur Albums (3)
What The Critics Say
"I always had the voice and now I am a singer," Teitur declares on The Singer's title track, a song that is either uncomfortably self-referential or half-hearted in its humor. As with much of Teitur's material, the arrangement is sparse and elegantly atmospheric, with vibraphones and strings underscoring the voice that Teitur so deliberately sings about. The quiet instrumentation is appealing, but the beauty of Teitur's music doesn't quite hold up when it's explicitly referenced. While 2003's Poetry & Aeroplanes benefited from Teitur's fragility and earnestness, "The Singer" paints a self-congratulatory picture of fans driving "for seven hours from all across the country," only to "break into tears" as Teitur lifts up his tremulous voice. Perhaps conceived as a thank-you letter to his audience, the track instead comes across as misguided, and The Singer wobbles under that weight for the rest of the album's eleven cuts. There are occasional highlights, of course: "Catherine the Waitress" offers up a rare dose of energy with horns, lively drums, and falsetto hoots, while "The Girl I Don't Know" is a minimalist southwestern ballad with hints of mariachi music and saloon piano. Elsewhere, Teitur achieves a sort of melancholic, low-key splendor with tracks like "Guilt by Association" and "You Should Have Seen Us," both of which benefit from the occasional stab of orchestral strings and female harmonies. Even so, the opening song continues to loom large over the album's second half, as the listener is left wondering whether or not these lightly adorned songs are really supposed to elicit tears and cross-country travel. ~ Andrew Leahey, All Music Guide
'Stay Under the Stars'
Release Date 1/1/2006
Tracks 12
Label Edel Records
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What The Critics Say
Teitur (last name not used: Lassen) is a singer/songwriter who, early in his life, left the northern European Faroe Islands and now spends most of his time in Denmark, which largely owns the (mostly) independent Faroes. Teitur is largely independent himself, particularly since leaving the confines of the major Universal label for the Arlo and Betty label he shares with his manager (the album is licensed to Equator Music in the U.S.). Singing in English, he released his debut, Poetry & Aeroplanes, in 2003 to mostly thumbs-up reviews, and one track, "One and Only," founds its way into a couple of film soundtracks, notably the slight comedy My Super Ex-Girlfriend. Slight is also an apt description of Stay Under the Stars, but it's not necessarily a derogatory one. Teitur's songs have a breezy wispiness underneath their melancholy chord changes -- think a happier Nick Drake or a modern-day Al Stewart -- and his sparing use of orchestration and fanciful keyboard colorations make the songs seem lighter on the surface than they actually are. Sometimes Teitur likes to play his words against his sounds: On "I Run the Carousel" he begins, accompanied by glockenspiel and other mixed keys, by stating flatly that he does indeed operate said carnival ride, "with horses and Tinkerbell late night by the canal." It's only when he confesses that "Sometimes it tortures me, the envy and the jealousy, but I never panic," that it's clear we're not in Jonathan Richman country here. On occasion, Teitur does turn up the volume, but never too much, and when you expect it the most, as on his cover of the Jerry Lee Lewis oldie "Great Balls of Fire," he turns that expectation on its head by going practically baroque with it. ~ Jeff Tamarkin, All Music Guide
'Poetry & Aeroplanes'
Release Date 1/1/2003
Tracks 11
Label Universal Records
See Album Tracklist and Review
What The Critics Say
Evoking images of sensitive '70s MOR, the pensive male singer/songwriter came into vogue as the millennium turned. Teitur (full name Teitur Lassen) came to prominence on the heels of this movement. Though he is often compared to John Mayer, Poetry & Aeroplanes is more otherworldly than most Mayer fare, possibly as a result of Teitur's cosmopolitan background (he left the Faroe Islands as a teenager and proceeded to spend little time on any one continent). Dramatic orchestrations fill out most of the material, leaving the few ballads that are relegated to guitar-and-vocals simplicity sounding like Dave Matthews without the hippie inclinations. ~ Brian O'Neill, All Music Guide
